🚀 go-pugleaf

"Michael" <cmgoh@iinet.net.au> wrote in message
news:3c27111e$0$3483@echo-01.iinet.net.au...
> Salutations
>
> A friend of mine just upgraded to an Athlon XP 1600 with Epox 8KHA+
> motherboard, 256Mb DDR RAM and Geforce 2 MX video card and using WinXP
> (unknown if it is home or professional).
>
> He has the following error
>
> "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR EQUAL"
>
> sometimes when quiting games and try to get back to desktop..happends to
> Wolfenstein, Civ3 and Ghost Recon
>
> Has anyone else had this problem?  Any solutions?
>
> (sorry about cross posting)
>
>
> Regards
>
> Mike

Hoo hooo are you going to enjoy this one. It's a very major prob. I had it
myself after I upgraded (but is all good now ..).

There's a MAJOR bug with mobo's with VIA chipsets (Is that Epox 8KHA+ using
a KT266A VIA chipset?), nVidia graphics cards, and Windows XP. :)

The problem lies with AGP 4X (it is thought). Basically, the system craps
out after a variable amount of time when using 3D accelerated things. (It
now is thought to be a memory driving bug in the nVidia drivers....). I've
been following this quite closely since I upgraded. (I want AGP4X dammit!)
:)

There still is no singular solution.  However, I recommend dropping the AGP
speed down to 2X .. you'll lose a tinsy amount of performance.. but it's
better than BSODing all the time. Works for me! But defiantly download the
VIA 4in1 Drivers, the IDE Miniport Drivers. They'll improve system
performance drastically.

Everyone else says the problem lies out of their field. Check out the VIA
Arena forums (particular the Windows XP section) at
http://forums.viaarena.com/ which should help a LOT.

Tweak your BIOS, try different drivers, do everything and try everything!

If it doesn't work, keep trying different things. There will be one
configuration that works perfectly without sacrificing performance - after a
lot of tinkering. I've found it for my system, but it's just a matter of
time. :)